A mantra of the US Marine Corps is to 'improvise, adapt and overcome'.

Leaders in the Youngstown City School District are faced with that very reality.
Their reading of the tea leaves from state lawmakers suggests more hard times.

"It's just a little scary when you hear what's coming out of Columbus with the attitudes toward public education and funding our public schools," board member Joe Meranto said during Thursday's ad-hoc committee meeting.

"Public education is very important to our communities," added committee chair and board member Tina Cvetkovich. "That's where our kids are getting their education, and if they cut our budget, they're going to hurt our students."

At Thursday's meeting, the school board factored that potential funding gap into its evaluation of its buildings and student population.

"A district our size, we have too many buildings," Meranto said. 

Superintendent Jeremy Batchelor said that each building is at about 60 to 70 percent capacity.
One possibility he sees is one middle school building versus two, with the district expanding its early college program.

"We want to see that grow, we want to attract students from outside the district to come check out our early college programming and see what it's about and with that in mind, we also need to make sure they have the buildings for that growth," Cvetkovich said.

She was quick to add that any decisions are a long way down the road, and that there will be ample time for parents, teachers and staff to weigh in.

They'll meet again March 27 with public input in April, looking to find more ways to 'improvise, adapt, and overcome'.